Transcript of Abbot Clement
=s Holy Thursday Homily, March 24, 2005First of all I would like to thank all of you for coming and joining us in prayer on this very auspicious celebration of the great gift of the Eucharist and the priesthood. Jesus said to Peter, AUnless I wash your feet you=ll have no part in me@ or as the text now says, Ano inheritance in me.@ We have all read or heard or talked about the great need we have for reconciliation. The need to receive God=s forgiveness. We are reminded of the need to establish sound, wholesome relations with God, first of all, with others, with ourselves, with societies and nations.
In the time of Jesus the world was not much different as it is today but it seems it was filled with all kinds of suffering especially greater poverty, although that is hard to believe at times when we look at Africa today, and oppression. The fact that Jesus himself is in a country that is occupied. He feels the tension that exists between his people and the Roman garrisons. In fact, not too much after his death, the Romans destroyed the temple and then wiped out their political life.
But there=s another kind of oppression that is much more sensitive and that=s the oppression that comes from interior slavery that marks the life of everyone who has not been received by God. It=s an alienation, an oppression and sometimes not even recognized. So Jesus came precisely to establish a new system, a new way. His efforts were obviously somewhat realized because in the early church he was known as the Way. He became the Way because he knew the Father. He knew he had come from the Father and that his whole life was in his humanness discovering the way back to the Father and then to share that discovery. To show us how to return to the Father because, after all, we too come from the Father but differently than he. So that way was a way of reconciliation. We are all to enter the way of reconciliation. That means to be washed clean from sin. So that we would be recognized as the children of the Father.
So Jesus needed to wash our feet. In this particular text the meaning of the washing of feet has many strong opinions in theology, but I think the main two lines are correct. Some say it represents baptism others say it represents the side of the heart of Jesus pierced by the spear in which flowed blood and water.
The first one focusing on baptism is looking at the effects of Jesus= action. The one of the passion, the cross, looks at the action that Jesus takes to wash us. So in fact what do we see? That Jesus undertook the action of a slave to wash the feet of the Apostles which no spiritual master in Israel would even think of doing. And that=s precisely why Peter objects, he sees clearly that this is way too deep a humiliation for Jesus and Peter says, Ayou will never wash my feet.@ But you see Jesus sees things differently. The impact, the purpose of Jesus= action is to teach us as he taught his disciples to see things differently.
If we are to be in new relationships, in a relationship of reconciliation that it means that we need a new type of relating. We need to relate to each other not from privilege and certainly not from insisting on our own rights, but rather like Jesus to be ready to give, and to serve, to humble ourselves. The Lord washes us it=s the Lord who cleanses us in order to give us a share in his heritage so that we would be part of him. Jesus is gentle, loving, trusting, as he washes the feet of the men who in a few hours will leave him alone before his enemies.
It seems to me we have a difficulty with this text and mystery and I suppose especially monks because the danger is we have meditated on it often, year in and year out, and we think just because we understand something of it that we are there. That we indeed serve as Jesus served. But as I get older I find myself learning new things and new depths to what it means to be at the service of others. It seems to me that two things stand out strongly from Jesus= action... first and foremost, Jesus in his intention really wants us to be close to him. He wants us to be in union with him and he wants an interior life from us and he wants us to be living his life. That=s why he says to Peter, Aunless I wash you will have no inheritance with me.@
The second thing is that Jesus is showing us a profound truth. That when love exists in us we serve. Love alone is strong enough to overcome criticism, to absolve slights, to not be stopped by officious demands, it has the power to be amiable with the fidelity of the Father=s love. Yet on the other hand, it=s very ordinary. It=s a day by day service. Nothing greater can be asked. No greater lesson can be given because the lesson is what it means to do, to live a selflessness that is a manifestation of love. So today in a very powerful way Jesus gives testimony of his love in the sacrament of his body and blood in the action of a love that serves.
I would like to put it another way that maybe for some a sharper summary: we hear Paul tell us in 2 Corinthians, since one died for all, all died. He died for all so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him for whose sake died and was raised up.@
It=s very interesting when you read the Rule of St. Benedict he talks about how much we should eat and drink and he says, Athere=s to be no over indulgence for monks, that is not a sign of true monasticism.@ Paul is going one step further he is saying that it is totally incompatible for a Christian to live a selfish life. Jesus tells us. Jesus lives. The total gift of himself. He=s the one whose love always serves.